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Planning Commission Minutes DRAFT September 23, 2004 Page 6 Ernest Solomon, 27500 Elena Road, asked how the antenna would be raised during an earthquake (response -has an emergency generator). As the Director of the Purissima Water District, he noted that the District and the Town are in negations regarding lease arrangement for an antenna on their La Cresta tank. He asked how this proposed antenna may impact the La Cresta tank or visa versa or is the La Cresta antenna still needed. Mr. Abraham responded that the antenna is still needed. They have found in previous drills that in spite of having the repeater there, they still run out of communication medium as the repeater is saturated with people talking back and forth on it. If there was an emergency, they would need more capability to communicate. The only way to provide this is to achieve enough height to get into the west part of Town. Mr. Solomon continued asking if there was some mechanism so that District operations personnel can be notified of an earthquake or other emergencies which could impact water supplies. Mr. Abraham felt this could be coordinated through the ham operators relaying information they receive from the Town's staff and the emergency operations center, communicating directly to Purissima Water District. The goal of the emergency communication committee is to serve the Town and the residents. Richard Jones, 12666 La Cresta Drive, stated he was not opposed to this antenna but there are some conditions that are lacking such as no lights on the antenna, no commercial use, and no unanticipated load on the power distribution grid. He asked if this project is going to involve any increase in development area as he understood that in 1993 it was determined that the property was 3,575 square feet over the MDA. If the project is going to add any additional development area, whatever is added should be reduced elsewhere on the property. The Planning Director noted that the tower footings are generally not counted as development area and if it did it would be 36 square feet which is not the main issue. Mr. Jones continued stating he can see the top 30 feet of the 40 foot antenna from his property as well as his neighbor's. Jim Waschura, 12658 La Cresta Court, felt it was the Planning Commission's responsibility to protect neighbors in this situation. He felt the neighbors would be harmed by this project. He will see this tower from his front and back yards. Currently he has another 50 foot tower on the other side of his property and has not grown accustomed to it and this current project will be 2.5 times higher than the story pole indicates. He noted that the top of the antenna placed on the top of the proposed tower would not even St into the multi-purpose room. PRB-1 does not guarantee any particular amateur the right to put up any particular type of antenna. If no suitable compromise can be worked out with the particular amateur, his request for an antenna can be rejected. He investigated the Bosscher versus Algoma Township proceedings, providing the following quotes : (1) The language of PRB-1 itself confers only a limited Federal preemption, and promotes the Federal interest in amateur radio operations rather than any individual operator's right to erect the antenna of his or her choice. (2) Both the text of PRB-1 and the cases applying it have roundly dismissed the notion that an amateur radio operator is entitled to a tower sufficient to enable him to engage in any type of communication he wishes to engage in. (3) Application of this reasonable accommodation standard does not require the city to allow the amateur to erect any antenna he desires. (4) Given that plaintiff is not entitled to any tower he